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Redondo High’s Leland Green steps up from supporting player to leading man on basketball team

Leland Green has been a stand-out player for the Redondo Union boys basket ball team. Redondo is playing Loyola in the quarterfinal of the highly competitive CIF Open Division.
Thursday, February 27, 2014, Redondo Beach, CA.
Photo by Steve McCrank/Daily Breeze

Heading into Bay League play, the Redondo High boys basketball team faced a tough dilemma.

The Sea Hawks would be without senior captain Ian Fox, who was out for several games with an ankle injury.

On a young team with only two seniors, Leland Green had to be the guy to fill Fox’s shoes. How would the sophomore handle that pressure?

In the first league game against Peninsula, Green showed he was up to the challenge, scoring a career-high 25 points in helping the Sea Hawks get the win.

It led to Green becoming arguably Redondo’s best player in league play, and entering the Sea Hawks’ Open Division semifinal against Loyola, Green’s confidence is as high as he gets on one of his dunks.

“I just knew I could do it because of how hard I worked in the summer,” Green said. “I felt that I had to step up a lot to fill Ian’s spot and help us push through league until he got back.”

It was Fox who took a lead role in helping Green develop in the offseason. Fox recalled how he would drive to pick him up and the two would work on shooting and other drills.

“I was telling everyone in July he was going to be a special player,” Fox said. “Whenever I’d ask him to work out, he’d do it.”

The 6-foot-2 Green was already a key contributor on last year’s Division II state title team. He had flashes of brilliance, such as his 14-point, 11-rebound, five-steal performance against Cathedral, but entering this season, the goal was to be more consistent.

Redondo coach Reggie Morris Jr. also pushed Green, who he called the future of the program, to progress beyond being a good scorer and athlete and becoming a more complete player.

“We emphasized that with his athleticism, the need to be a presence on defense and helping his team on the glass,” Morris said.

It’s a hard task for younger players, Morris said, when typically they are focused so much on scoring. Yet Green and fellow sophomore Cameron Williams were all too eager to produce where necessary.

“Over the second half of the season, (Leland has) come through with constant production,” Morris said. “He’s been consistent, and that’s all you can ask for.”

Green has averaged 12.1 points, 5.2 rebounds and two steals this season. He had five games with eight or more rebounds. He uses his speed to jump in the passing lanes and anticipate steals to turn them into fastbreaks.

He has also became more vocal on the court and worked on his leadership. As Redondo racked up wins and as Fox returned, the focus kept coming back to how much Green had grown in his game.

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On a young team with only two seniors, his growth helped accelerate the learning curve for his teammates.

“His first year he was shy and didn’t know what to expect,” the Sea Hawks’ Cameron High said. “This year you can see he has more confidence.”

Green has had his share of star-making moments this season. In the Take Flight Challenge, he had 17 points — 15 in the second half — to go along with nine rebounds and eight assists in a win over Alemany.

Then there’s the dunk. A made-for-YouTube moment against Palos Verdes that he had been waiting for all year. Green had a steal on a fastbreak and with one hand rose over a PV defender and slammed it in, much to the delight of his team and the crowd.

“I’ve been trying to dunk on somebody for two years, so when I did it, I went crazy,” Green said.

Palos Verdes coach Greg Clark said that dunk changed the game’s momentum for Redondo as the Sea Hawks cruised to the win. It was just another sign of Green growing more comfortable in realizing how to impact a game.

“You can see a lot of development in him and Cameron (Williams),” Redondo’s Terrell Carter said. “Leland just makes the right plays at the right time.”

The Sea Hawks will need that against Loyola. The Cubs’ Thomas Welsh, 6-foot-10 Redondo Beach native, is a McDonald’s All-American headed to UCLA. And Loyola’s Khalil Bedart-Ghani, whose sister Yaasmeen is a standout on the Redondo girls volleyball team, is a high-flying dunker who has committed to the University of San Diego.

Yet in Morris’ eyes, Green is becoming a player who is hungry enough to make the necessary adjustments to produce against anybody.

“To see a young player be consistent is important and impressive,” Morris said. “You see the flashes, but the biggest part is that it’s consistent and been over the course of the whole league,”

Fox was even more bold in how high the ceiling can be for Green.

“He has a lot of potential to be one of the best players to come out of Redondo, ever,” Fox said.